Psychological Profile of Athletes in Contact and Non-Contact Sports

Transcription

1 Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research 9 (5): , 2011 ISSN IDOSI Publications, 2011 Psychological Profile of Athletes in Contact and Non-Contact Sports F. Sohrabi, S. Atashak and M.M. Aliloo 1 Department of Psychology, Mahabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Mahabad, Iran 2 Department of Physical Education and Sports Sciences, Mahabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Mahabad, Iran 3 Faculty of Psychology and Educational Science, University of Tabriz, Iran Abstract: The aim of the present study was to compare clinical patterns and clinical symptoms of personality between athletes in contact and non-contact sports. The variables were assessed with Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III manual and Eyesenck personality questionnaires. Subjects consisted of 200 male (18-30 years) who selected from 4groups of colleges teams (box, karate, swimming, gymnastic) in the West- Azerbaijan in Iran. Mannova test was used for statistical analysis. Results demonstrated that contact sport players had high scores in the histrionic, narcissistic, antisocial, negativism and sadistic scales, but in schizoid scale acquired low scores in comparison of non-contact sport players and there were not significant differences among groups in personality factors. According to the results of this study results it can be concluded that, the groups are distinguished significantly in the majority of variables, indicating that contact athletes present differentiated psychological characteristics in comprise non- contact athletes. Key words:clinical Pattern of Personality Clinical Symptoms of Personality Contact Sports Non-Contact Sports INTRODUCTION groups of individuals characteristically self-regulate or how people control their thoughts, feelings and Personality is the totality of the faculties, bent, behaviours [5]. qualities and temperament which characterize a A link between personality and health has been person. Personality traits are the relatively constant noted for thousands of years. Hippocrates argued that an patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviors that reflect imbalance of the four temperaments would affect both the tendency to respond in certain ways under certain personality and physical health. Consistent with circumstances [1]. Hippocrates ideas, recent evidence suggests that Personality is typically measured using a self-report personality predicts health because may affect healthquestionnaire on which respondents indicate their related behavior, such as smoking, diet and exercise. For feelings or behaviors, yielding measurements of traits example, Hampson et al. [6] find that both the initial level such as neuroticism, anxiety, extraversion, dominance, and the growth in hostility (a facet of Neuroticism) assertiveness, sensitivity, conscientiousness and throughout elementary school predict cigarette, alcohol agreeableness. Personality either predicts or is related to and marijuana use in high school and sociability (a trait many things, including performance motivation [2], related to Extraversion) predicts drinking but not smoking. leadership [3] and job performance [4]. Researchers have The mechanisms are relatively unexplored but some studied personality in various areas ranging from the empirical evidence suggests that personality affects workplace to athletics. health-related behavior, psychological responses and Personality traits appear to have consequences for social relationships [7]. individuals across a range of life domains because they According to DSM-IV-TR Personality disorder and provide information about how different persons and clinical pattern of personality, enduring patterns of Corresponding Author: Sirvan Atashak, Department Physical Education and Sports Sciences, Mahabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Mahabad, Iran. Tel: +98 (0)

2 perceiving, relating to, thinking about the environment Personality Inventory. In cases where athletes were and oneself that are exhibited in a wide range of social and participating, permission from the coaches and athletes personal contexts and are inflexible and maladaptive and had to be obtained along with their agreement to cause significant functional impairment or subjective cooperate in the project. distress [8]. During the past 20years, a good deal of information Materials: Participants completed 2 questionnaires: about the personality characteristics of individuals who Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III manual (MCMI-III) and engage in athletic and sporting activities has been Eyesenck personality questionnaire (EPQ-R-S). reported. Moreover, there are many evidences about the The third edition of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial existence of relations between psychopathological pattern Inventory (MCMI-III) is designed to aid in the and some sport activations [9]. To understand the assessment of both DSM-IV Axis II personality disorders personality patterns of athletes, researchers have asked and Axis I clinical syndromes [13]. The 175 questions whether they differ in personality from non-athletes and directly reflect the DSM s diagnostic criteria. The MCMIwhether athletes vary among different sports [10]. III consists of 24 clinical scales: 3 severe personality However, athletes in contact sports are likely to differ in disorders and 11 clinical patterns of personality scales a number of ways from those in non-contact sports, and 10 clinical syndrome scales. Clinical patterns of particularly in height and weight. If personality is related personality include 1, Schizoid; 2A, Avoidant; 2B, to body build, physical differences may account for Depressive; 3, Dependent; 4, Histrionic; 5, Narcissistic; personality differences between athletes in various 6A, Antisocial; 6B, Sadistic; 7, Compulsive; 8A, sports. In fact, while he recognized that some of the Negativistic; and 8B, Masochistic subscales. relationship may be based on stereotypes, Sheldon found The MCMI-III manual has been revised and the most that more muscular types (mesomorphs) are more recent edition includes a more expanded MCMI-III in outgoing than less muscular types (ectomorphs) [8]. psychological assessments and clinical situations It may be presumed that individuals choosing to moreover the validity and reliability of the Questionnaire engage in those combat sports which are aimed at mental were encouraging for health assessment for general and physical self-improvement would very seldom exhibit population [14]. more aggressive behavior than no contact athletes such The primary traits or factors of personality were as golfers or tennis players and have also been found to examined by Eysenck Personality Inventory [15], which be higher in narcissism and histrionic scale [11]. measures extraversion (12 items), neuroticism (12 items), Furthermore, athlete in contact sport usually have an high psychoticism (12 items) and faking (lie scale) (12 items) by scores in neuroticism and somatic tensions and more answering yes or no to each question. Eysenck and likely exhibit high risk behavior such as drug abuse, Eysenck report that internal consistency and test-retest alcohol dependence, high frequency of sexual reliability coefficients for extraversion and neuroticism indiscretions and so on [12]. Therefore, reviewing range from.75 to.95. They also cite evidence of characteristics expected of various combat sport athletes concurrent and factorial validity. The lie scale is designed may be helpful. The purpose of the present study was to to measure faking good, and is elevated when people provide further evidence of whether psychological are instructed to give a good impression. Scores above profiles vary among athletes that participate in contact 4 or 5 are considered to cast doubt on responses to the and non-contact sports or not. other scales [15]. That is, a person s scores on extraversion and on neuroticism might be contaminated MATERIALS AND METHODS by response bias and should be interpreted with caution. Usually, lie scores are used when people s scores are Participants and Procedure: Participants were 200 interpreted individually, but not in research where they university athletes (18-30 years) that participate in contact are combined with scores of others. (boxing; n=50, karate; n=50) and non-contact (gymnastic; n=50, swimming; n=50) sports. Participants filled out a Statistical Analysis: Before statistical comparison, all consent form, provided demographic information (age, data sets were tested for normal distribution by a weight, height, year of study), then completed 2 Kolmogorov- Smirnov test. Moreover Wilks lambda and 639

3 Mannova test was used for statistical analysis. All The results of multivariate analysis between groups statistical analyses were performed using the SPSS in clinical patterns of personality subscales were statistical software package (SPSS version 16.0 for statistically compared and are shown in Table 3. Windows, SPSS Inc. Chicago, IL, USA). The significance According to the analysis shown in Table 3, the levels of this study was set at p<0.05. multivariate analysis (MANOVA) demonstrated the existence of a statistically significant difference in 6 out of RESULTS the 11 variables when comparing contact sports with noncontact sports (p<0.05). Participants on the contact group Statistics for descriptive comparisons are in Table 1. scored higher on narcissistic, histrionic, antisocial, There were no significant differences between groups at negativism and sadistic scales than participants on the the beginning of the research for age, body weight and non-contact group. Conversely, members of the nonheight. contact group were significantly higher in schizoid scale According to The results of Wilks Lambda Test, than members of the contact group (p<0.05). there are significant differences in some scales of According to the results of Table 4, there were no questionnaires between 2 groups in this study. The statistically significant differences among groups in results of Wilks Lambda Test are presented in Table 2. Eyesenck personality inventory scales. Table 1: Descriptive characteristics of the contact and non-contact groups Variable Contact (n=100) Non-contact (n=100) P- value Age (years) ± ± Weight (kg) ± ± Height (cm) ± ± N Values are mean ± standard deviation Table 2: Descriptive characteristics of the contact and non-contact groups Test Parameter values F Degrees of freedom Error degree P \Wilks Lambda *(P<0.05). Table 3: Multivariate analysis between groups in clinical patterns of personality scales Clinical patterns.. Sum of Square Df F P Schizoid * Avoidant Depressive Histrionic * Dependent Narcissism * Antisocial * Sadistic * OCPD Negativism * Masochism *(P<0.05). Table 4: Multivariate analysis between groups in personality factors Personality factors Sum of Square df F P Neuroticism Extraversion Psychoticism *(P<0.05). 640

4 DISCUSSION small private college, the Ivy League University and the small state-supported college. In addition, as predicted The historic notion that sport develops positive and as found by Newcombe and Boyle [22], neuroticism characteristics in athletes has been the impetus for many did not vary between contact and no contact athletes. studies in sport psychology. Sport participation has been Consequently, these results of our study are consistent associated with positive personality attributes such as with Stuart et al. [24] that reported that contact athletes extroversion and low levels of neuroticism, tension, scores on extraversion are elevated. In addition Stevens fatigue and confusion [16]. Unfortunately, sport et al. [25] revealed that judo players in comparison to participation is not immune to relationships with socially other athletes have more unstable mood states changes, undesirable behaviors and characteristics. Athletes have low coping strategies and self-set goals, high somatic been found to show higher egocentricity, lower levels of tensions, aggressive behaviors, neuroticism and moral reasoning and greater acceptance of aggressive psychotisism scores. behavior than non-participants and so on [17]. One possible reason for this discrepancy between The psychology of the sports should continue to this and the present findings may be explained by deal with the numerous and complex questions of the differences in length of exercise and different athletes relations between the personality and the sports activity skills in their sport fields which seems longer training may [18], so it have benefits would then become useful for the be due to improve and fix some personality traits and its individual player in career and life planning, self- dependent behaviors in athletes [26]. Moreover, the management (such as stress/time management) and differences in the participant s age and gender, samples improved interpersonal skills. There may also be further size, the type of sport, instruments, educational levels and applications for sports team building and sports culture may be the other possible reasons for this management training [19]. discrepancy [27]. Therefore, the present study investigated the clinical The results of kirker et al. [28] consistent with patterns of personality and personality factors findings of this study that indicated players, who are (psychological profile) between athletes participating contact sport athletes, are more aggressive than no contact and non-contact sports. The most important contact athletes such as golfers or tennis players. In findings of this study is that psychological profile another studies it has been found that college baseball in subscales, as measured by MCMI-III, significantly was comparison to non-contact sports such as tennis scored different between groups which athletes in contact sports higher for aggressiveness and reported more criminal were more histrionic, narcissistic, antisocial, negativism behavior (including hitting a significant other) [29]. As and sadistic than non-contact athletes and in schizoid University football players have also been found to be scale have a lower scores. But there were no significant higher than other athletes in narcissism, conservative selfdifferences in EPQ-R-S scales between athletes in contact sufficient and more self-assured [23], which involve anger and non-contact group. and aggressive behavior [30]. Similar to these studies, Although some previous studies have been shown Wlas et al. [31] reported that Aggression control was that, there were not significant differences between significantly lower and self-aggression significantly athletes among various sports, but most of them report higher in boxers compared with non contact groups, there are different psychological characteristics among furthermore externalized aggression significantly lower in athletes participating differing sport fields [20]. However, ju-jitsu than in karate athletes and emotional selfthere is less agreement on how personality varies from aggression also significantly lower than in boxers or sport to sport [21]. In consistent with our study Lemieux karate athletes. Contact athletes score high on assertive, and colleagues (2002) reported that In general, if self confident, ambitious scales and they seek to influence personality is related to body build, physical differences others to help achieve goals ambitious, energetic and may account for personality differences between athletes poised [32]. Furthermore, their scores are lower than the in various sports [12]. In fact bigger participants scored others on several scales, such as Self-acceptance, Social higher on hostile aggression and reported more fighting Conformity, Achievement via Conformance and Work than smaller participants and in natural situation there Orientation [3,16]. were not significant differences between them [22]. Backmand et al. [33] reported that contact athletes Furthermore, Steaub and Davis [23] were not found were characterized by being more extroverted and significant team's differences in personality between the presented lower indication of the ego orientation [33]. 641

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